This invention relates to articles and methods for supplying softening and antistatic benefits to clothes in an automatic clothes dryer. The articles comprise a mixture of particulate clay and fabric conditioning agents releasably combined with a dispensing means.
Treating fabrics in an automatic clothes dryer has recently been shown to be an effective means for conditioning and imparting desirable tactile properties thereto. In particular, it is becoming common to soften fabrics in an automatic clothes dryer rather than during the rinse cycle of a laundering operation. Treating fabrics in the dryer, rather than in the wash, enables the formulator of fabric conditioners to develop and use materials which may not be compatible with detergents. Moreover, the user of dryer-added conditioners is not compelled to make the special effort required with many rinse-added products.
The art disclosed dryer-added fabric conditioners oftentimes suffered from fabric staining and dryer compatibility problems. Overcoming these problems has been the object of extensive work in the dryer conditioning field.
The present invention is based on the discovery that fabrics can receive softening and antistatic benefits from an article containing a mixture of a particulate clay and organic conditioning agents while being dried in an automatic clothes dryer. The conditioning benefits are received while fabric staining and dryer compatibility problems are reduced.
It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide articles which can be added to a clothes dryer to condition fabrics concurrently with a dryer operation.
It is a further object herein to provide methods for conditioning fabrics.
These and other objects will become obvious from the following disclosure.